We can’t tell you how many times we’ve seen the stories about how humans should be eating bugs instead of cows and how much better it would be for the environment. Humans also shouldn’t have cars … they should live where they can get where they need to go either by mass transit or on a bicycle. Which means they should live in cities; the suburbs were a mistake (as is the nuclear family) and lawns are another environmental catastrophe.
So what happens when a city like San Francisco or Los Angeles gets too crowded? Well, people could live in apartments made out of shipping containers, or they can live communally in “pods” — essentially a bunk like a camp with a lamp and a plug for your laptop. Or here’s an idea from Slate: dorms for grown-ups! You get your own room but share a kitchen, bathroom, etc. Or look at these colorful abodes:
Many of our houses are bad for the planet; and despite an improvement in building energy efficiency, 2021 saw carbon emissions from construction hit an all-time high.
But around the world, innovative homes are being designed to be more sustainable. https://t.co/MND42znFIn
— CNN (@CNN) December 12, 2022
This sketch of heating a home versus heating people inspired quite a thread:
When leftists post stuff like this, it’s a deep betrayal of their psychology.
The inadvertently say the quiet part out loud.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
It’s the culmination of a desire to see their enemies suffer, the worship of low culture, Soviet-tier word games…
And unfathomably massive cope.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
The leftist approach to shortages is never to fix them, or improve the situation.
They see it as a vindication of their ideas — an opportunity to “bring people to their side” and to punish their enemies.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
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When energy or food shortages affect their designated enemies (normal, well-turned-out white people with families) they loudly pray for them to get worse.
On that level, it’s simple envy expressed as a revenge fantasy.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
But this is where the delusion comes in — they imagine their enemies as ultra-rich, coddled trust fund kids who have never tied their own shoes, much less “survived”
They fantasize about being thrown into a tough situation with these people, wherein their “grit” will triumph
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Of course, the most outspoken leftists *are* those coddled trust fund kids. They’re never people doing real work, or living in harsh climates, or producing their own food.
Their most loyal, rabid base is the Starbucks-worker class. pic.twitter.com/7HD7TU1nTC
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
However, they want to imagine that on a “level playing field” of absolute poverty, they’re better than their enemies. That they’re more in-touch, more gritty, more durable.
Again, this isn’t the case — but that’s the delusion.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
The other element is a phrase I’ve used a couple times but never really explained: the worship of low culture.
Leftists, despite often coming from coddled backgrounds, are obsessed with the practices of the poor, the isolated, the foreign.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
They always reference the lifestyles of peasants, of isolated hunter-gatherers.
They’re fascinated by the quaintness of the Congo village, the Asian shoebox-apartment, the Eastern European hovel, the favela.
The Longhouse. pic.twitter.com/lZYqArWwEn
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
In times of struggle, they smugly say “well *some* people don’t have bread and eggs, or indoor heat, or cars. They’re really a luxury!”
As if that standard of living is something to aspire to. pic.twitter.com/LPcRC3r2Ey
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Despite the fact that most of them are oversocialized hyper-urbanites, they imagine that they’d be able to embrace such a lifestyle — that of a tribesman, or a third-world urban worker — with ease.
In this fantasy, the kulaks (read: you) would suffer and die.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Again — not reflected by reality.
It’s the chuds that step up and thrive during utter devastation.
Conversely, any attempt by leftists to be protective, supportive, etc. comes off as ineffectual and lame — utter LARP. pic.twitter.com/lofDWIIWEx
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Remember CHAZ? The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone is Seattle with its own community garden and armed community patrols? (And four murders?) That was liberals’ idea of paradise.
But I digress.
We saw similar rhetoric in the early USSR. This is where the wordplay, the doublespeak, enters.
During regional famines or shortages, the regime’s public stance was “some of your comrades survive with less — do you dare think yourself better than them?”
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
They have a borderline-fetishistic desire to watch you suffer and smugly act like it’s normal.
We saw this extensively during COVID.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Watch for more of this rhetoric as energy shortages cause further misery in Western Europe.
It’s present on social media, and the seeds are planted in government rhetoric and mainstream media.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
To be clear, I don’t think we’re heading for some Mad Max collapse where everything is off the shelves — our infrastructure may be weakened, but it’s far too robust for that future.
However, energy shortages & local crises? Absolutely.
And we’ll see even more of this rhetoric.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Remember #EmptyShelvesBiden?
Tl;dr — it’s the original “learn to code”, but this time instead of jobs it’s basic necessities
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
Also there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the graphic at the beginning of the thread — it’s good info in case you lose power. It’s the tone and discourse that surrounds things like this during potential shortages that I’m analyzing.
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
FYI this is not even remotely about climate change or energy reduction for environmental goals, though that language is certainly used as well.
I meant to write this about actual shortages, natural disasters, etc. and the Discourse that erupts from them
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
And for more examples of the discourse I’m talking about, look at the replies —
The funniest rebuttal is the implication that if you want indoor heating, you’re somehow “soft” or “not tough enough”.
They’d tell you the same thing about food and clean water if it came down to it
— Alaric The Barbarian (@0xAlaric) December 24, 2022
This reminds us of when Brian Stelter got mad when people said New York City was all boarded up over the threat of riots and looting. Why, the boards were coming down on his block, and the city even put back the trash can on the corner that protesters had repeatedly set on fire.
Remember #OperationFlyFormula? The Biden administration using the military to fly in baby formula from Switzerland? What a proud moment.
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